These results provide scientific validation for the use of spirulina as a potential vegetarian source of bioavailable vitamin B12 . - GreenMedInfo Summary
Improvement of vitamin Bstatus with Spirulina supplementation in Wistar rats validated through functional and circulatory markers.
J Food Biochem. 2019 Sep 9:e13038. Epub 2019 Sep 9. PMID: 31502254
Chegu Krishnamurthi Madhubalaji
Spirulina evaluated as a source of vitamin Bthrough the modulation of vitamin Bdeficiency mediated physiological and biochemical changes in experimental animals. The Bdeficient male weanling Wistar rats were fed with Spirulina-supplemented diet for 10 weeks. An increase in urinary methylmalonic acid (22.70 ± 4.08 µmol/moles of creatinine) and plasma homocysteine (16.55 ± 0.48 µmol/L) levels in the Bdeficient group was observed, while these were equal to control in the Spirulina fed group (8.71 ± 0.48 µmol/mol of creatinine and 6.88 ± 1.18 µmol/L, respectively). The vitamin Blevels in serum (874.27 ± 89.69), plasma (615.53 ± 26.5 pg/ml), kidney (10.19 ± 1.066 ng/g), and liver tissues (6.37 ± 0.62 ng/g) in the Spirulina fed group were similar to control. Severe atrophic changes in the testes and altered tissue architecture in lung and spleen as seen in the Bdeficient group were normalized in the Spirulina fed group. The study validates that Spirulina can improve the vitamin Bstatus. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The present study showed that the supplementation of Spirulina in the diet of vitamin Bdeficient rats leads to the normalization of vitamin Bdeficiency-induced circulatory and functional biomarkers along with biochemical and histological changes. Vegetarian sources for vitamin Bare limited and the results presented here provide scientific validation for the use of Spirulina as a potential vegetarian source of bioavailable vitamin B.